


Devotion

by MikazukiMunechika305



Series: MajiGaku Royalty AU [1]
Category: AKB48 & Related Fandoms, Majisuka Gakuen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-18 22:39:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14861627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikazukiMunechika305/pseuds/MikazukiMunechika305
Summary: {‘Something entirely else’ was also a phrase that fit well as a description for the princess, Oshima Yuko. Mariko had expected her to be a spoiled, selfish girl like most of the other girls her age that she knew (maybe even more so, since Yuko was an actual princess)—but Yuko was not like that at all.}The first time Mariko met the princess, she immediately decided that she'd be spending the rest of her life with this girl.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tokutalia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokutalia/gifts).



> Welcome to my first Majisuka Gakuen fic! \o/  
> I had this idea while I was marathoning all the MG seasons, so this is what became of it (lol)  
> I hope you'll enjoy reading~!

They were six years old when they met for the first time.

Mariko’s father had taken her along to the castle when her mother didn’t have enough time to watch over her while he was at work, so he had gotten the king’s permission to bring his daughter along to work.

Her first time entering the castle came with many surprises, such as the sheer impression of everything being much bigger than she was used to it from home. Mariko’s father earned quite some money since he worked for the king, so her family wasn’t too bad off, but the castle was something entirely else than their little mansion.

‘Something entirely else’ was also a phrase that fit well as a description for the princess, Oshima Yuko. Mariko had expected her to be a spoiled, selfish girl like most of the other girls her age that she knew (maybe even more so, since Yuko was an actual princess)—but Yuko was not like that at all.

When Mariko’s father led Mariko into the throne room, once again telling her to behave well and not touch anything without permission, Yuko practically jumped at Mariko. “Hi, I’m Yuko! Who’re you?”

For a moment, Mariko could only stare at her. Then she took a deep breath and smiled. “Shinoda Mariko, Your Highness,” she introduced herself, like her father had told her to. “I’m pleased to meet you—”

Yuko’s pout interrupted her, accompanied by a sigh that sounded too heavy for such a young girl. “That’s boring,” she declared, reaching out to poke Mariko’s cheek. “Talk to me like a friend, not like a servant!”

Mariko looked at her, puzzled. Her father had always told her how to behave around people with a social status higher than her own, how to greet them formally and to always agree with them to stay in their favor, but Yuko didn’t seem like one of those people.

Before she could come to a conclusion, Yuko had already grabbed her hand, beamed at the king saying “bye, daddy and daddy’s friend!”, and pulled Mariko back towards the door. “Let’s go play, Mariko!”

“But, Yuko-sama—”

Yuko glared at her, as much as a six-year-old could do that. “Too formal.”

“Yuko-san?” Mariko tried again, but Yuko still didn’t seem completely happy, so she hesitantly added, “…Yuko-chan?”

The princess nodded eagerly, clapping her hands twice. “That’s better!”

Mariko opened her mouth to resist, but Yuko already continued talking as she led the way to the garden. “Mariko, what do you wanna do when you grow up? I wanna become a knight and fight in daddy’s army! Being a princess is too boring after all.”

“But… that’s what you’re supposed to be, isn’t it?”

“But I don’t wanna be a princess!” Yuko protested intently, pouting. “It’s really boring!”

So Mariko tried to put on a smile and humor her. “Uh… I suppose you’re right about that.”

“So what do you wanna be?” Yuko pushed a door open and jumped down a few stairs until her feet landed on grass with a soft _thump_.

Mariko furrowed her eyebrows slightly, trying to think of an answer. “…I don’t know. I’m only six… daddy says I don’t have to worry about my future just yet, but I have to study properly so I can be a good housewife later.”

The young princes spun on her heels and eyed Mariko with furrowed eyebrows. “No! You gotta make plans like that early in life! And being a housewife is boring too!” She leaned down and picked a flower from the glass, looking at it for a moment and then stepping closer to Mariko. The other girl looked at her in surprise as Yuko leaned in close and carefully wove the flower into her hair, smiling brightly as soon as she was done. “There! This suits you. If you’re gonna become a housewife already, you should wear flowers like this.”

 

After that extraordinary day with the country’s princess, who was so very different from what she had expected, Mariko asked her father to take her to the castle more often. He did so, at first reluctantly, but then seemed to figure out that it might be useful to have closer bonds with the king’s family, and allowed her to go even when he didn’t have to work in the castle.

Soon Mariko went there every day, and the more she heard Yuko talk about adventures and fighting, the more she felt intrigued to join the princess in her fantasies about that.

They went on their first adventure when they were ten years old. It wasn’t a very big adventure, but for Yuko, who had never left the castle and its gardens in her entire life so far, Mariko, who lived in the quiet outskirts of the town, was a quite welcome distraction to her well-known nursemaid.

After listening to Yuko’s nagging and begging for two days, ten-year-old Mariko agreed to sneak out of the castle with her and show her the safer areas of the town.

Yuko led the way out of the castle (to Mariko, it seemed like she had been prepared for this day already since she knew exactly when the guard changes at the gate would happen) and then let Mariko take the lead as soon as they were outside.

Mariko led her down the hill the castle was situated on, and then into the town she lived in. People greeted Mariko, and a worker at the bakery offered her a small cake for free, and she hesitantly made use of the situation and asked for one for Yuko as well.

The woman smiled at them fondly and gave Yuko a cake as well, and Yuko beamed happily when she took a bite from it.

That expression alone was enough to make Mariko relax a little, and she smiled as well.

They ate their cakes as Mariko continued showing Yuko around the town, pointing out what her father had told her about the old houses, and telling her about the nice old women she sometimes got to visit.

“I have a granny too,” Yuko said, sounding a little sad. “But daddy won't let me see her. I think he doesn't like her.”

Mariko hugged her sympathetically. “I'll introduce you to mine someday, if you want.”

That made Yuko smile again, and she skipped a few steps ahead from Mariko. “Come on, show me more!”

An hour later, they returned to the castle. “That was a great adventure!” Yuko declared, hugging Mariko briefly. “Take me on another one soon!”

Mariko smiled weakly, unable to resist the curiosity in Yuko’s eyes and the dazzling smile on her face. “I will,” she said, at the same time wondering why she agreed to something like that. It could be dangerous for two girls to walk around in town by themselves; she'd have to learn how to defend herself (and Yuko) if she was going to repeat this adventure.

And so, she asked one of the castle guards to teach her in self-defense. He agreed a little reluctantly and by the time she was 12, Mariko was quite capable of defending herself even without any weapons.


	2. Chapter 2

Her parents died when Mariko was 14 years old. She had spent the night at the castle, having a sleepover with Yuko. When she returned to the mansion the next day, the friendly old lady living in the house next to theirs told her that apparently, her parents had been killed by one of their servants.

The old lady took her in, and Mariko cried a lot, not leaving her guest room for a whole day. On the day after that, the door to the room opened, and she simply pulled her blanket over her head. “Please leave me alone…”

“Mariko…” It wasn't the old lady, or one of her servants; it was Yuko. She sat down on the bed and stroked Mariko’s back gently. “What happened? You didn't come to visit me yesterday.”

Mariko leaned into her touch and sobbed quietly. “Yuko-san… I'm sorry. My parents died…”

Yuko gasped and pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly. “I'm sorry. It's fine that you didn't visit me.”

Mariko's sobs slowly died down as Yuko rocked her back and forth, and she reluctantly freed herself from her friend's hold. “Did you… sneak out of the castle all on your own?”

The princess nodded, a slightly proud expression on her face. “So I did. It would've been more fun if you'd been there though.”

Mariko chuckled weakly. “I'm sorry. I'll make sure to come over again. Once I'm feeling a bit better, alright?”

Yuko patted her back sympathetically. “Stay here for as long as you want. That's an order,” she added with a small grin, and the tiniest of smiles spread on Mariko's lips. “But,” Yuko continued thoughtfully, “if you feel up to it, I can convince my dad to let you stay at the castle.”

“You'd do that?”

“Of course. You're my best friend after all.” Yuko gave her an enthusiastic high-five and hugged her again.

Mariko finally managed to give her an honest smile, and rested her head against Yuko’s shoulder, already feeling a bit better.

 

A few days later, they stood in front of Mariko’s parents’ grave. The funeral had ended just a few minutes ago, but despite a heavy sadness bearing down on Mariko’s shoulders, she couldn’t cry anymore. She’d shed too many tears in the past days; she simply didn’t have any tears left anymore.

Yuko stood next to her, her hand holding Mariko’s tightly. They’d never held hands since they turned ten, but now Mariko was glad over any kind of support and squeezed Yuko’s hand tightly enough to make the princess look like it hurt a little. But Yuko didn’t complain, not wanting to make Mariko feel guilty in addition to her sadness.

After a few minutes, Yuko freed her hand from Mariko’s gently and placed a big bouquet of flowers down on her parents’ grave.

Two days later, Mariko moved into the castle. It had taken Yuko a few days of begging her father to agree and promising him that she wouldn’t sneak out of the castle anymore if he did (a promise which she knew she would not be able to keep), and he finally had allowed Mariko to move into the castle, on the condition that she’d become Yuko’s maid.

Yuko had scoffed at the mention of the word ‘maid’—“But Mariko’s my best friend!” she had protested, which had her father glare at her. “A princess does not live together with her best friend.”—but Mariko hadn’t objected to being called Yuko’s maid, and so she got the permission to sleep in a room near Yuko’s own.

In quite some nights, Yuko left her room to sleep in Mariko’s room, and even though Mariko had become a lot more serious since her parents’ death, they remained best friends and grew even closer.

Then, one day, they sneaked out of the castle together. Both of them were 16 years old now, and Mariko was more opposed to leaving the castle alone and without permission than she had been when she’d been younger, but Yuko was still as convincing as ever.

“I have you with me,” she declared when Mariko said that it would be dangerous, “so it won’t be dangerous at all. Besides, I’ve been practicing my self-defense skills a bit too. I’m not that weak.”

In fact, Yuko was quite strong, as Mariko had found out only a few days prior. She probably had been practicing a lot when Mariko hadn’t watched her, and she was very good and quick at noticing her opponents’ weak spots. If there was one person Mariko did not need to worry about, it was Yuko.

That was why, after some hesitation, Mariko agreed, and followed Yuko out of the castle when the guards were changing and nobody paid attention to them.

The town hadn’t changed much since Mariko had moved to the castle, but there were quite a few people on the streets now that she didn’t know.

Fortunately her favorite bakery was still open, so they headed there to buy a small cake for each of them. When they had left the bakery again, taking small bites from their cakes to savor the taste, Yuko suddenly stopped in her tracks and spun on her heels. “Give it back,” she said, and Mariko turned around as well, grabbing someone by their wrist before they could run away.

The person was a girl who looked like she was their age; she had black hair that went down about half of her back, and her clothes looked quite a bit torn. She lowered her head slightly, remaining silent, and clenched her hand around the money she’d stolen from Yuko. “…I can’t,” she mumbled after a moment.

Mariko’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, you can,” she said. “And you _will_.”

The girl shook her head, and Mariko tightened her grip on the girl’s wrist. “Give it back,” she said, her tone a bit more commanding now. “Right now. Or I’ll tell the guards at the castle that you—”

“Mariko,” Yuko interrupted her, taking a step forward. “Let me handle this.” She turned to the girl, giving her a small smile. “Are you hungry?”

Slowly, the girl nodded. She reluctantly put the money back into Yuko’s hand when the princess held it out, and followed Yuko into the bakery. “No, it’s too expensive—”

“I’m paying. Pick whatever you want.”

Watching that, Mariko could only groan inwardly. This was so like Yuko; to be nice even to someone who had tried to steal her money. She could just hope that the stranger wouldn’t try to kill them the moment they let their guard down.

But it didn’t seem like that was what the girl had in mind. She looked at the cakes with wide eyes, like she had never been this close to them before, and slowly pointed at one of them. “Then… that one.”

“You sure you only want one?” Yuko encouraged her, ignoring Mariko’s worried glance. “I like you, so you can have more.”

The girl picked two more small cakes, and when Yuko had paid, the three of them sat down on a bench just outside the bakery. Mariko and Yuko sat on either side of the girl to make sure she wouldn’t be able to do anything wrong.

After letting the girl eat in silence for a while, Yuko spoke up curiously. “So, what’s your name?”

“…Kashiwagi Yuki. Most people call me Black, though.”

As if she knew exactly what Yuki was talking about, Yuko nodded her head and made a knowing “uh-huh.” “Nice to meet you, Black. I’m Oshima Yuko—you can just call me Yuko, though.”

“Yuko-san…” Mariko couldn’t hold back her groan this time. “You shouldn’t give a stranger your name so easily. Who knows what she might do?”

“Nothing,” Yuki cut in. “I won’t do anything.”

“But…”

“And this,” Yuko continued, as if Mariko hadn’t said anything at all, “is Shinoda Mariko, my best friend! What kind of nickname do you think would fit her?”

Mariko stared at her in disbelief. “Nickname?! Yuko-san, I don’t think I need anything like that—”

“Sado!” Yuko’s expression was bright and enthusiastic now, as if she’d just had a great idea. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself when you tried to scare Black away just now. And you like bossing the servants around, right? So Sado it is!”

Mariko sighed in exasperation and decided not to protest. Once Yuko had her mind set on something like this, it was better not to oppose her. “So, now that I have a nickname… what are you going to do?”

Yuko tapped her chin thoughtfully. “You’ve been talking about it, haven’t you? About forming an army of some kind.”

That was true. Mariko had been thinking about gathering bodyguards for Yuko, one of them being herself, in order to protect her more properly. “I have, but…”

“See, can’t Black become one of the members?”

“No!” both Mariko and Yuki said in unison, though for different reasons.

“I can’t,” Yuki then added, looking away. “Thank you for the offer. It does sound nice, but… I have someone to take care of.”

“Who?”

Yuki shook her head quickly. “We’ll get into trouble if I tell you.” With that, she got up and bowed in front of them, putting the two remaining cakes into a bag hanging from her shoulder. “Thank you very much for the cakes, but I’d better be taking my leave now.” With that, she vanished as quickly as if she’d never even been there in the first place.

Mariko looked at the spot where Yuki had been standing until only seconds ago. “That… was weird, Yuko-san. What if she tells someone about us being here?”

Yuko shook her head, not seeming worried at all. “My name didn’t seem to ring a bell for her, and neither did yours. It’ll be fine. Now, wanna go anywhere else?”

For the remainder of the time they spent in town, Mariko kept looking around a little nervously. She didn’t trust Yuki as much as Yuko did, so she somewhat feared for someone to attack them, but that didn’t happen.

They made it back to the castle in peace, and a few days later, Mariko had forgotten about the incident in town. She asked the king to let her become his daughter’s bodyguard, since Yuko was much fonder of Mariko herself than of any bulky, strong men, and the king reluctantly agreed after watching Mariko beat up one of his soldiers.


	3. Chapter 3

From then on, they didn’t need to sneak out of the castle anymore. Yuko convinced her father that she would be completely safe with Mariko by her side, not mentioning her own skills with defending herself, and a few weeks after their first meeting with Kashiwagi Yuki, they went to town again.

Everything went just fine until Yuko bumped into someone—or, more specifically, someone bumped into Yuko. She stopped in her tracks, just like Mariko, and turned around to the person.

The person turned out to be a girl their age with long black hair and a small scar above her left eye. She lifted one of her hands up to her mouth to start biting at her nails and muttered a teasing, “Hey, are you angry?” that was accompanied by a crazy laughter.

Yuko raised an eyebrow. “No, I’m not. What…” She couldn’t finish her question because Mariko pulled her away, just a split second before the strange girl’s fist flew forward, punching the air where Yuko had been standing.

Mariko pushed the princess back, stepping in front of her protectively. “We should leave, Yuko-san.”

The girl already pulled her hand back for a second punch when a hand grabbed her wrist. “Gekikara! Didn’t I tell you not to leave our room?”

Yuko peeked out from behind Mariko’s back cheerfully. “Black, is that you? Nice to see you again!”

Yuki pulled the other girl back by her wrist. “Leave them alone, Gekikara. They’re the ones I told you about yesterday. The ones who bought the cakes for us.”

The other girl, Gekikara, obediently lowered her hand, although she didn’t seem very happy. “But, Black…”

“No, Gekikara.” Yuki’s voice was cool when she said that. “Not after they bought cakes for us.”

Gekikara scowled slightly, but stepped back next to Yuki, who bowed and then turned away to leave.

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait!” Yuko exclaimed, following them. “Gekikara is your name, Black said?”

Gekikara remained quiet for a moment. “Matsui Rena,” she finally said. “People call me Gekikara. Why?”

“You’d be an interesting addition to our army!” Yuko started, but Black interrupted her.

“Yuko-san, please stop. Gekikara is the reason why I can’t join, and it’ll be bad for your reputation if you have her in your ‘army.’ It’s better for all of us if we don’t see each other again.”

Mariko sighed in relief. “She’s right, Yuko-san. Just look at them; a thief and a… crazy—”

“A killer!” Gekikara giggled, and Black clasped her hand over her friend’s mouth immediately.

“Gekikara! We agreed to never talk about that! Be quiet and come home with me now.” She more or less dragged the other girl along, now significantly slower than she had been before, and Yuko followed them curiously.

“A killer? What was she talking about, Black? Hey, tell me~” she kept pestering them, and Mariko groaned quietly.

“Yuko-san, please! If she really is a killer—oh god, if something happens to you…!”

But of course—Mariko should have expected it—Yuko didn't listen. Instead, she was still following after Black and Gekikara, curiously asking them more questions.

Gekikara had fallen silent now, she had stopped biting at her nails, and the look in her eyes had turned a bit softer; but Mariko considered her a dangerous, crazy person nonetheless.

Black looked more annoyed than anything. Her hand was still clenched tightly around Gekikara's wrist and she was pulling the other girl along, not replying to any of Yuko's questions. She knew that if she let the princess know the truth, both of them would be taken to prison and she wouldn't be able to be with Gekikara anymore.

Only moments later, Gekikara stopped in her tracks, pulling her own wrist back hard enough to make Black stop walking as well. “Let me go, Black.”

Black turned around to her, eyes wide. “Gekikara…?”

Gekikara freed her hand and buried it in her pocket, looking away. “...I'm sorry.”

It took Black only a second to understand what was going on. “Amakuchi,” she mumbled, and then, a bit louder, “it's fine. Just come home with me now, okay? It'll be okay. You're not going to prison.”

Gekikara—Amakuchi—gave her a weak smile. Then, she turned around and vanished in the crowd of people surrounding them.

Black’s expression seemed to change a few times within only seconds. She looked surprised at first, then worried, and finally, she turned away from Yuko and Mariko with a heavy sigh. “You two should go home now.”

“But—”

Mariko grabbed Yuko's hand and pulled her away. “Let's go, Yuko-san. I have a feeling we should really leave now.”

Yuko followed her with a pout on her face. “But, Sado~ I want them to join our army!”

“No, Yuko-san. They're not joining us, at least not right now.” With that, she pulled the princess along to the castle.

 

Gekikara first walked away slowly, but then started running eventually. She felt a bit guilty for causing Black so much trouble again, and she couldn't help but think that she should give the other girl some more freedom for the time being.

Right now she was Amakuchi, her gentler self, and Amakuchi liked being alone. She was a quiet person and she cared about Black quite a lot.

That was why she was running away now, too. In her times as Amakuchi, she knew that if she and Black were seen together, people would try to separate them.

“Amakuchi!” a voice called out behind her, and she stopped in her tracks. Black caught up with her with ease and grabbed her wrist again. “Don't run away again,” she said quietly. “It's dangerous around here.”

Amakuchi hadn't noticed that. They did live in a pretty rundown area, but she hadn't noticed that she'd been running straight towards one of the most dangerous areas of the town, but she didn't care. She was Gekikara, a killer—this was where she should belong, where she should be living. “I'll be fine,” she told Black quietly.

Black's eyes narrowed, and her grip tightened a bit. “You won't. Come home with me.”

And Amakuchi obeyed. She felt tempted to let Gekikara—or Chuukara, at least—take over control again, but on the other hand, it felt nice to have Black around her when she was being calm. Black's touch on her wrist made Amakuchi relax a little, and she even managed a small smile by the time they got back to the small room they shared. “Thank you, Black.”

“For what?” Black raised an eyebrow.

“For… always being here.” Amakuchi fell silent again, but the smile returned to her lips when she saw that Black, too, was smiling now.

“It’s no problem.”


	4. Chapter 4

On the next day, Mariko went to town again—by herself, this time. She hadn’t told Yuko that she’d be going there because she knew the princess would follow her along again; but there was something she wanted to do on her own.

She was strolling through the streets, pretending to be casually looking at the cakes and bread that were displayed in the window of the bakery near her former home, when she noticed a person of a familiar stature, wearing black clothes, nearby.

Mariko immediately spun on her heels, reaching out to grab the other girl’s wrist.

Black stared at her for a second, then she yanked her wrist free and disappeared into the crowd.

“Black!” Mariko called after her, and when the other girl ignored her, she started running after her. “Listen to me!” And then, after a moment of hesitation, she added, “Please!”

But Black kept disappearing. She occasionally stopped in her tracks to check if Mariko was still there, which was how Mariko could keep track of where the young thief was, but then vanished into thin air again. Soon, Mariko was breathing heavily, and she doubted that she would actually catch up with Black, but she still wasn’t willing to give up.

When she finally paid a bit of attention to her surroundings, she noticed that following Black had led her to a rundown part of the city that she’d never been in before. Tensing up a little, Mariko pulled the grey fur that Yuko had given to her a while ago tighter around herself and walked on significantly slower than she had before. She didn’t want to risk getting into trouble more than necessary.

The people walking or sitting on the sidewalks gave her skeptical looks, muttering among themselves curiously. Mariko was sure they didn’t see someone who was as well off as her very often, but she ignored them and sped up her pace a bit again, looking around for Black.

Unable to find her, she finally decided to ask an old man sitting on the sidewalk. “Excuse me?”

He looked up at her, giving her a grin showing that he’d already lost a few of his teeth. “Now, if this ain’t one of the rich ladies. What can I do for ya, Missy?”

Mariko furrowed her eyebrows in irritation upon being talked to like this, but then cleared her throat. “Do you know a person named Kashiwagi Yuki?”

“Kashiwagi Yuki, eh… lemme tell ya, Missy, we barely call people by names like that around here.”

Her annoyance increasing, Mariko sighed. “Black,” she prompted him. “She said that was her nickname.”

The old man clapped his hands, laughing hoarsely. “Ah, the one living with that killer! What do ya want from someone like her?”

“That’s none of your business, sir.”

“Sir!” He looked even more delighted at that. “If only ya knew how long it’s been since someone called me that.”

“Did she pass by here?”

“Who?”

Mariko closed her eyes briefly, taking a deep breath in order to keep herself from punching the old man. “Kashiwagi Yuki. Black. You said you knew her.”

He nodded, finally looking a bit more serious as he pointed at a door nearby. “Lives in that house. Together with that killer, so ya’d better be careful if yer considerin’ goin’ in there.”

“Yes, I know that. Thank you very much for your… help.”

The man gave her another laugh and waved after her as she turned away and headed towards the door and knocked at it.

As she waited for someone to let her in, Mariko could hear noises from inside, someone laughing and Black raising her voice, telling Gekikara to be quiet and go back to her room before she opened the door, frowning at Mariko in silence.

For a moment, Mariko didn’t say anything either. Then, she spoke up, since it didn’t seem like Black was going to do that. “Black…”

“Sado.”

Mariko raised an eyebrow, but didn’t try to correct her. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“I’m not going to join your army.”

“Right. I’m not here to convince you to join. I’m just here to talk.”

Black stared at her for what felt like an eternity; then she took a step back with a heavy sigh. “Come in.”

Mariko stepped inside and looked around cautiously, half expecting Gekikara to jump at her from somewhere and kill her.

Black noticed that and gave her a tiny, bleak smile. “At least you’ve finally learned that it’s dangerous here.” She led the way to a dusty room that looked like it used to be a dining room. There was a cheap table with two equally cheap stairs in the middle of the room; all three pieces of furniture looked like they would collapse any moment if one only looked at them.

“This is where you live?”

The thief shrugged. “It was empty when I came here, so I took it. That’s the way things work around here.”

“And Gekikara?”

“…I met her in town one day.” It was more than obvious that Black didn’t want to talk about this topic, but this was what Mariko had come here for.

She reluctantly and carefully sat down on one of the two chairs, subtly clinging onto the table even though she was sure that wouldn’t help her much if the chair actually did collapse. “Did Gekikara really kill someone?”

Black’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a rich girl. You’ll make sure we go to jail if I tell you the wrong things.”

“No. Yuko-san doesn’t want you to go to jail after all.”

“And you do whatever ‘Yuko-san’ says, huh?” The young thief still seemed skeptical. “I’ve learned not to trust people.” Mariko opened her mouth again to say something when Black already continued. “On the other hand, everyone knows what she did. Except for you, apparently. So I’ll tell you.”

“Thank you.” Mariko even managed a small smile, which Black ignored.

“Gekikara did kill someone. But it wasn’t _her_.”

To Mariko, that sounded very unreasonable. How could Gekikara have killed someone without being the killer?—Maybe… “A split personality?” Mariko muttered to herself. There were theories about that, made by some famous doctors and scientists; she’d read a book from the Royal Library about that recently.

Black shrugged slightly. “Dunno. But there’s three sides to her, basically. There’s Gekikara, the killer. She’s the crazy one you met the first time. She’s got a soft side, though; one that knows that what she did was bad. That’s Amakuchi. She’s actually pretty reasonable, and she seems to genuinely like me. And then there’s Chuukara. She’s something between the other two. She can beat people up, but things usually don’t get too bad with her.”

Mariko listened in silence. Those things sounded reasonable to a certain extent; they explained how Gekikara could seem so crazy and switch to being so silent within a mere second. “So… that’s why you told her not to talk about it. Because you don’t want her two ‘innocent sides’ to pay for something they didn’t do, right?”

A sigh left Black’s lips; she didn’t seem very happy only thinking about that. “It’s not her fault. I think her being like this… is her way to cope with her past. If you ask me, it’s her surroundings that made her like this.”

Mariko first opened her mouth to ask Black to elaborate, but then decided against it. Maybe the young thief didn’t even know anything about Gekikara’s past—Mariko doubted that Gekikara would have told her, and she didn’t know if Amakuchi or her third personality had done that either.

Black raised an eyebrow when Mariko remained silent for so long. “You have more questions,” she rightfully concluded. “But if they’re about Gekikara’s past, I won’t answer them.” That didn’t give away whether she couldn’t or didn’t want to answer them, but Mariko decided to leave it at that for the time being.

She lowered her head slightly, which made Black’s eyes narrow skeptically. “Thank you.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’ll go back to the castle and keep all of this to myself.”

Black didn’t look like she believed her, but she simply nodded. “Alright. You shouldn’t come back here, though. The people around here aren’t as nice as you might have thought.”

“I didn’t think any of them were nice.” _Except for you_ was a phrase that she considered adding for a moment, but then decided against it. Instead, she carefully got up from the chair and followed Black back to the door. “Then… see you.”

Black raised an eyebrow in silence, and Mariko nodded. She left the house and made sure to leave the area as soon as possible without seeming too rushed—not that she was scared of running into a robber or anything similar, but she knew that even she couldn’t take on too many opponents and go out of that fight victoriously.

 

“Sado!” Yuko greeted her excitedly when she got back. “Where _were_ you? You missed lunch.”

Mariko bowed slightly. “I apologize; I must have gotten too caught up in… well, what I was doing.”

“But what were you doing?” Yuko was as curious as ever. She even looked like she was going to make use of her authority as the princess, even though she usually didn’t like doing that.

“Yuko-san… do I really have to tell you?”

And there it was—Yuko’s stern glance, the one she used when she pretended to want to be a princess. She straightened up to her full height (which was still less than Mariko’s, but it gave her a certain aura of authority) and looked up into Mariko’s eyes. “Yes,” she replied.

Mariko sighed. “…I went to town,” she said, a bit reluctant. “I had to take care of something.”

“Of what?”

“I… wanted to talk to Black.”

Immediately, Yuko’s princess-like posture slumped a bit and her eyes lit up curiously. “Really? What did you talk to her about?”

“…actually, you were right when you said she’d be a good addition to our ‘army.’ I just went there to talk, though.” She explained what Black had told her about Gekikara, and Yuko listened intently.

“I hope you’re not going to listen to her,” she said when Mariko finished. “If you go there again, you might find out more about them. I still want them in my army.”

Mariko stared at her in disbelief for a moment. “Wait, you want _both_ of them now?”

“Sure. Is there a problem with that?”

“Of course! Even if there’s a nicer side to her, one that can follow orders, Gekikara is still an unpredictable, dangerous killer!”

Yuko waved her hand a bit dismissively. “Oh, you’ll be able to keep her in check, I’m sure. And Black and me will still be around, too. If you should fail, that is.”

“Yuko-san!” Mariko groaned in exasperation. She was glad that Yuko trusted her so much, but sometimes this trust felt like quite a big burden. “We can’t do that. We can’t bring a killer and a thief into the castle.”

The princess tapped a finger against her chin thoughtfully. “Maybe we can’t… but it’ll work if they’re not a thief and a killer anymore, right?”

“…what are you talking about? Are you planning something?”

Yuko winked at her amusedly. “I’ve got an idea. Just give me some time to think it through.”


	5. Chapter 5

After getting that kind of answer, Mariko had expected Yuko to spend days thinking about a plan and present her a detailed description of what she had made up afterwards. What Yuko actually did was nothing like that.

On the next day, she ran around in the castle like she always did, sparring with Mariko and reluctantly going through her lessons, and then, in the evening, suddenly clapped her hands in excitement. “I’ve got it!”

“You’ve got what?” Mariko asked her, obviously confused.

“A plan! I know how we can get Black and Gekikara in here.” Yuko barely even bothered to lower her voice, which made Mariko put a hand over the princess’s mouth in shock. She made sure that nobody could hear them and then pulled her hand back, allowing Yuko to continue talking. “See, we just need to get them nice dresses. We can pretend we hired them as my new maids.”

Mariko stared at her in a mix of surprise and disbelief. “ _That’s_ your plan?”

“Of course. Is something wrong with it?”

“…no. It’ll be worth a try.” _A try that could get both of them arrested if anyone recognizes them—and maybe us as well_ , Mariko silently added with a sigh. But she knew that it was better not to oppose Yuko once the princess had set her mind on something. “Fine. I suppose it’ll be my job to get them proper clothes, then.”

Yuko beamed at her. “You got that right. I’ll come with you though, if you want.”

“No, thank you. You’d better make sure that nobody here at the castle figures out what’s going on.”

 

On the next day, Mariko went to town again. She made her way to the house Black and Gekikara lived in without any further complications, but this time, it wasn’t Black who opened the door.

It was Gekikara—no, judging by the look in her eyes, Mariko assumed that she was Amakuchi right now. There was no maniacal laughter, not the crazily cheerful-sounding “Hey, are you angry?” that she’d heard the first time they’d met. Amakuchi stared at her for a moment before she spoke up. “Why are you here?”

“Is Black here?”

“No. I’m alone. And you should leave, probably.” She moved to close the door again (maybe Black had talked her into sharing her opinion), but Mariko put her foot into the space between the door and its frame, looking at Amakuchi seriously.

“Wait. Listen to me, okay?”

“Why?”

“Can I come in first?”

Amakuchi took a step back to let her in, still seeming a bit reluctant—but she didn’t complain anymore. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

Mariko followed her to the dining room and carefully sat down on one of the unsteady chairs, brushing a little dust off the table. “The last time I was here, Black told me that you really did kill someone.”

“So you’re going to make us go to prison after all.”

“No. Yuko-san wants you to join her ‘army,’ and I think you and Black would be good people to do that. Yuko-san made a plan for getting you into the castle.”

“I refuse, and Black will, too. You were right when you called us a thief and a crazy killer. Even in a castle, I doubt we’ll be able to get rid of our habits. And now, you should leave.”

That was when they heard the door open and close again. “Gekikara, I’m back—” Black fell silent when she entered the room and saw Mariko. “…Sado. You came back.”

“So I did. I wanted to ask if you’re really sure you don’t want to come to the castle. Yuko-san would really like to have you there.”

Black sighed, looking away. “…of course it’d be nice to be there. I’ve spent all my life in places like this, so it’d be nice not to have to steal money for once. But us being in the castle would only cause trouble.”

Amakuchi stepped next to her, placing her hand on Black’s shoulder tentatively. “She said she had a plan…”

Mariko smirked weakly. “Well, it’s not like it’s a great, foolproof plan. Yuko-san came up with it within a few minutes. But if it works out, nobody will bother asking about your past.”

“Tell us about it.”

So Mariko explained Yuko’s plan—how she wanted the two of them to pretend to be maids she’d hired in town. The plan smashed itself the moment Black and Amakuchi said synchronically, “But we don’t know how to behave like maids.”

“We might be able to pull off bodyguards,” Black added slowly, “but maids? We don’t usually spend much time around those.”

“If you really want it,” Mariko sighed, “I can teach you a bit. It’s not like you’ll be her maids forever. It’s just for the few minutes it takes us to get from here into the castle.”

They remained silent for a while. Black and Amakuchi occasionally glanced at each other questioningly, and finally, Black spoke up again. “…fine, then. We’ll try it. But you’d better make sure it works out.”

 

“They’ll do it?” Yuko repeated, a smile spreading on her lips. “Awesome. Then we can commence our plan now.”

“Yuko-san, are you really sure that’s a good idea?”

“Of course. Don’t worry, if anything, I’ll be safer. And we can still kick them out if it turns out the wrong way.”

Mariko sighed, but gave her a nod of agreement. As always, there was no point in resisting Yuko now—and besides, she didn’t really want to see her princess unhappy. So she started organizing things as Yuko told her: She went to see Black and Gekikara again to take their measurements. She went to a tailor who’d served her family well in the past and asked him to sew two maid dresses with the measurements she’d gotten from Black and Gekikara, telling him that money didn’t matter and he should just get them done as fast as possible. While they were waiting for the tailor to finish the dresses, Mariko made sure to teach Black and Gekikara as much about the proper way for maids to behave as she knew.

And then, a bit more than a week later, the dresses were ready. Mariko picked them up early in the morning with Yuko following her eagerly, and took them to their future owners on the same day.

Black and Gekikara looked pretty, but uncomfortable in their new dresses. “And we really have to wear these?” Black muttered for at least the third time while Mariko was braiding her hair tightly so it would match her clothes. “Ouch, that hurt.”

“Yes, you do,” Mariko replied strictly, running her hand through Black’s hair gently as if to apologize for accidentally pulling the other girl’s hair a bit too hard. “If you don’t wear it, you can’t come to the castle.”

Black cast a doubtful glance at Gekikara who was sitting on the other chair while Yuko was brushing her hair, quietly humming a tune to herself. Gekikara, too, didn’t look very enthusiastic about her new clothes and the hairstyle Yuko was giving her, but she remained silent, neither complaining nor laughing crazily.

Things were going well so far, and Mariko hoped they’d succeed with finishing their plan quickly.

Two hours later, they left the small, almost hovel-like house Black and Gekikara had lived in until now for good. Its inhabitants were carrying a bag each which contained their clothes and other few belongings (although Mariko had tried to talk them into taking nothing with them at first because first, she thought all of their “belongings” were stolen things anyways, and second, those “belongings” weren’t very maid-like and they could ruin their plan), and Mariko and Yuko were leading the way at a pace that was fast, but not fast enough to make people think they were doing something weird.

Unlike all the other times that they’d come back from town, the guards stopped them at the castle gate. “Princess Oshima, Lady Shinoda,” they greeted them, bowing their heads, and then gave Black and Gekikara skeptical glances. “And these ladies are…?”

Mariko already opened her mouth to say something, but Yuko stepped forward and gave the guards a cheerful reply instead. “No need to worry,” she said. “Yuki-chan and Rena-chan are maids we met in town. I like them, so I offered them more money than their previous employer, so now they’ll work here.”

“We’re getting money for this?” Gekikara muttered under her breath, nearly ruining the plan, and Mariko shook off her reserve and stepped down on Gekikara’s toes with the heel of her boot. A gasp of pain left Gekikara’s lips, but she bit her lip and remained quiet.

The guards looked the both of them up and down, still not seeming completely convinced. “But, Princess… are you sure you can just bring them here like this? Does your father know about this?”

Yuko waved her hand dismissively. “Of course, of course. It’s fine, don’t worry about it, just _let us in_.” As she said the last three words, she straightened up to her full height and even rose to the tips of her toes, glaring at the guards. For a moment, it was so quiet one could have heard a pin drop as Yuko went on her full authoritative princess-mode.

And then, much to Mariko’s relief, the guards stepped aside, bowing deeply. “Yes, as you wish, Princess.”

Yuko led them inside quickly, going ahead to her room and motioning for all three of them to come in before locking the door and dropping onto her bed with a grin. “See, it went just fine. Nobody’s suspecting a thing.”

Mariko furrowed her eyebrows in irritation. “Of course they’re suspecting things—Black!” She took a step closer to the thief and pulled her hand away from a golden clock on Yuko’s nightstand. “Don’t steal anything. You won’t have to.”

Black nodded, frowning, and reached out to squeeze Gekikara’s wrist. “Will we have a room to ourselves?”

“Yes. Two rooms, actually, since the maids here don’t share rooms—” Yuko cut herself off when she saw the look in the girls’ eyes. “One room, sure. We’ll find a bigger one for you.”

Mariko sighed heavily. “Have you even thought this through properly, Yuko-san? Sure, you made a plan to get them into the castle, but what’s going to happen now? Everyone will notice they’re not maids.”

“Now,” Yuko said, getting up from her bed and reaching up to peck Mariko’s nose, “we’re going to introduce my new bodyguards to my dad.”


End file.
